By William Mackay: The May 15th bout between World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan vs. Paulie Malignaggi could have a stacked undercard, according to Robert Morales of the Daily News. Unbeaten middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (18-0, 15 KO’s) could be facing Peter Manfredo Jr. (34-6, 18 KO’s), a former contestant for The Contender reality television. Additionally, the card will have Nate Campbell vs. Victor Ortiz. Apparently, Oscar De La Hoya from Golden Boy Promotions is looking to try and put this fight together and add it to the Khan-Malignaggi undercard.
If De La Hoya can do this it will an incredibly fight card, much better than the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey or the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley undercards. You could make an argument that the Jacobs-Manfredo fight, if it does eventually get made, would be the better main event fight compared to the Khan-Malignaggi fight. Jacobs, 23, appears to be a legitimate future star in the middleweight division, and doesn’t have the flaws such as a bad chin that Khan has.
Manfredo, 29, is good talent and tough competition. Although he’ll likely never win a major title in the middleweight division, Manfredo remains a tough fighter. He’s been beaten by Jeff Lacy and Sakio Bika in the past three years, but has defeated notable fighters David Banks, Walid Smichet, Matt Vanda and Donny McCrary.
Ortiz-Campbell is an excellent fight. Ortiz (26-2, 21 KO’s) may be a better fighter than Khan and have more of a future. Ortiz seems to have it all – hand speed, power, defense and youth. Only 23, the same age as Khan, Ortiz has already been tested tough in fights against Marcos Maidana, Mike Arnaoutis and Antonio Diaz.
Currently, Golden Boy is trying to rebuild Ortiz’s confidence after he was defeated last year in a 6th round stoppage loss to Maidana in June. Ortiz dropped Maidana repeatedly in the early rounds, but began to take steady punishment from Maidana following the 2nd round. Eventually, Maidana’s power and pressure was too much for Ortiz, stopping him in the 6th.
Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KO’s) moved up in weight last year from the lightweight division, a weight class that Campbell could no longer make without severely draining himself. Campbell has fought once since moving up to the light welterweight division, fighting to a 3rd round no contest in August 2009 to WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
Campbell looked poor in that fight, and in hindsight he perhaps should have taken on an easier fighter than Bradley in his first fight in the weight class. Campbell, 37, will be turning 38 on March 7th, and his age has to be a concern in this fight. Ortiz is very fast, hits hard and is tough because of his southpaw stance. Campbell will have to be fighting at his best if he wants to get out of this fight with a win.
Khan, 23, is fighting his first fight in the United States after building up an impressive record in his native England where he captured the WBA light welterweight title last year against Andriy Kotelnik. Khan won a Silver Medal for Britain in the 2004 Olympics. De La Hoya sees greatness for Khan and thinks that he can be the new face in boxing in the future.
We will see about that. Khan is being matched softly by being put in with the light hitting Malignaggi. Khan already was stopped in the 1st round when he was put in with his first hard puncher of his career, Breidis Prescott, in 2008. Khan hasn’t been put in with anymore sluggers since that fight.
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